Rotten Tomatoes to Hide 'Justice League' Score Until Opening Day

Movie review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes can sometimes make or break a movie by providing a consensus score for critics' reviews ahead of the movie's release. Now the site is trying a new approach with some high-profile movies, keeping their scores hidden until they're revealed on a new Facebook show on the eve of their release. That could be bad news for a movie like Justice League, which could benefit from advance buzz if a glowing Rotten Tomatoes score popped up a day or more before its debut.

There's a new wrinkle when it comes to Rotten Tomatoes, the online review aggregator that wields substantial sway over which movies consumers see.

Several weeks ago, the company launched a new Facebook show that airs late every Wednesday night. In order to entice people to watch See It/Skip It, the score for a movie or a television show is being delayed so that it can be revealed at the end of the roughly six-minute show. In the existing episodes, movies like Bad Moms Christmas, Thor and Murder on the Orient Express have been critiqued and discussed in episodes before unveiling the Rotten Tomatoes score at the end of each episode.

The Justice League review embargo doesn't lift until around midnight Tuesday, relatively close to the movie's release (most reviews break a week before opening day). Under normal circumstances, a score for Justice League would have popped up by Wednesday morning.

It's not clear whether Warners, which owns a minority stake in Rotten Tomatoes, knew of the delay. Two weeks ago, Sony was apparently unaware that the score for Bad Moms Christmas was being held back.

If a Tomatometer rating is good, Hollywood studios may not be happy to see their movies being selected for the See It/Skip It reveal, since the score is a powerful marketing tool in and of itself. Conversely, if a score is rotten, the delay could prove a blessing.